


Meet Me In The Woods

by ignis_kun



Series: The Greater Gatsbies: The Rangami Chronicles [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Boats and Ships, M/M, Mutual Pining, Running Away, fear of water
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:54:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27733360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ignis_kun/pseuds/ignis_kun
Summary: Togami and Amami decide to run away at the age of 20.
Relationships: Amami Rantaro/Togami Byakuya
Series: The Greater Gatsbies: The Rangami Chronicles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1984565
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Meet Me In The Woods

“Take me somewhere.”   
  
“Somewhere?”   
  
“Just anywhere. Take me. Tonight.”   
  
“...”

  
“Alright.”   
  
“...” 

  
“Meet me here?”   
  
“Where else?”  
  


● ●

The hairs on the back of Amami’s neck are standing up on end. He knows how risky an impulse decision like this is, what it means for Togami to leave with him right now. He’s made a decision, however, and he can’t take it back. He hadn’t expected this out of his visit to town, but life isn’t always predictable. He’s learnt that well considering the amounts of turns and twists in his own life, hard to tell when there’s going to be another. 

It’s warm tonight, the sky looks starless when it’s this close to the city, and the sun hasn’t set quite yet. Orange hues stretch across the expanse of the horizon, highlighting everything in its wake by a crisp, golden light. The air is fresher here than anywhere he’s been in the past few days. He could write several love letters to the air and ocean breeze, it’s something he’d never get sick of. It’s been the one consistent in his travels, the breeze. It makes him feel alive.

Tonight was a vague time to specify. Whether tonight was 7 PM or 12 AM was up for debate, but Rantaro would wait until the day passed. Otherwise, he was off for somewhere else tomorrow night. 

He could see how stressed Togami was when he was speaking to him. He looked as if he were on the edge of pulling his own hair out. Amami doubts he’s slept well in days, and though he was desperately attempting to hold it together, he couldn’t help but notice his usual snappiness was amplified. It was hard to miss after all. He thinks the poor waitress that had the misfortune of taking their order (Togami only went out to eat on Amami’s insistence, a bit bitterly, but he did) left crying at the end of her shift. He wouldn’t be surprised to figure out. He ensured to leave her a rather generous tip and an apology.

He saw this as an escape. Amami knows that well. This is the open cage for the bird to fly out of. He’s fine with being the one that opens the door. He’s a bird chained down to Eden, the nest, and he’s here to teach him how to fly. He might be a bit late to it, but people pick up these things at different times. He doubts Togami will want to do any work with the boat, not a skill he’ll have to learn. Amami will cover that himself. He’s always done it by himself, so this is no different. 

He hadn’t asked many questions. He knew there wouldn’t be answers to them. Togami has always been that way. Tightly guarded. He knows a reflection of his own traits when he sees it. 

The water is close to still on this night in particular. The waves only softly ebb, barely audible against the docks or shore. It’s a nice day for sailing, truly. Togami picked a good night to ask him for this.    
  


Everything’s ready to go. He’s been ready for a while now, and at this point, he’s just aimlessly staring at the sunset glistening against the waves, waiting. Each second feels longer as if he were waiting the months until Christmas instead of the minutes, maybe hours, maybe seconds until Togami shows up. 

  
  
  


The fishermen are minding their own business. The fishermen, ship workers and everyone else for that matter. The crowds have slowly started to disperse, leaving himself and a few stragglers in the wake of the rush. Few people linger at the docks this late, and he knows at nightfall there are probably a few ships that will dock here and unload cargo.

Neither of them is short of money, Amami’s aware of that. Yet, Amami’s also aware that most of Togami’s money belongs to his cooperation, not him. He won’t have much to pay him with. He won’t have much to pay for anything unless he eventually goes crawling back. By coming out here, he’s leaving that behind.

And Amami’s alright with that. He didn’t even consider money when he accepted Togami’s request. 

Or maybe he’s looking too much into this, and it is just a little vacation. Yeah, it’s probably that. He’s just ready for anything that comes his way. He’s ready for nothing to come his way, for hesitance, for a now-show, to leave tomorrow with disappointment.

Disappointment? It’s a funny word. He’s not sure why he’d use that description.

And coming his way is Togami. Bags packed in front of him, and nobody else with him. His hair looks tousled, and his nails bitten. His nails had always been that way. It’s one of the little features that remind him that yes, this is real and yes, this is Togami. He doesn’t look like he’s had rest in days. He’s exhausted.

He needs a break. Amami’s willing to provide that. Togami could have asked him to take him to Antarctica and he would have chuckled and said alright, and to meet him here tonight just as he is now. 

Before they graduated, Togami and Amami’s relationship had been.. odd to say the least. He’d call it a friendship, they had spoken pretty often, but there was always a sense of distance outside of warm libraries and fireplaces. They barely spoke around other people (with a few exceptions to the rule). But now they’re here together, ready to take a little trip.

Deep down, Amami has the inkling that it won’t just be a little trip because in that case, Togami would either be overestimating how much he needs or have a half-empty suitcase with the size of it. It isn’t one of the ones you’d bring for a small weekend trip.    
  
“Ready to go?” 

“I’m here, am I not?”    
  
There’s a small gap that stands between them and the boat, a small divider. The cage door.

Amami traverses the gap with little difficulty. This has become an ordinary occurrence for him over the years. Kneeling down, he holds his hands out.

“Here. I’ll take your things.”

Oh.  **Oh.** That bag is much heavier than he expected. 

“If you dro-”   
  
“It’s fine, it’s fine, I’ve got it.”

Rantaro steadies his grip on the bag. He’s not going to drop Togami’s bag into the water, that’s something he’s certain of. He would not laugh it off like it was only a little trouble.    
  
The bag is hoisted onto the deck. It feels like he just lifted a pound of bricks. He would have thought that years of rock climbing and hard travel would result in a bit more strength, but c’est la vie. 

He lets out a little sigh.

“You pack rocks in there?”   
  
“Of course not. Why would I pack rocks of all things?”

“I don’t mean-... It’s fine.”

Amami puts the suitcase in his hands aside, leaned up against the railing, then holds a hand out. 

“Trust me, you’re gonna want it. It’s your first time on a boat, right?”

“Second.”   
  
“Recently?”   
  
“No.” 

  
Togami slowly approaches the boat, nearly about to lift his leg to try and hoist himself up before   
  
“Careful.”   
  
“I am.”    
  
Togami looks down to the water below. Looking down at deep, near-black water in the warm light of the sun. It looks like it could lead to an endless void. The endless void that the sea truly was, and a land Togami not Amami would ever traverse.    
  
“Better if you don’t look, just pay attention to me, alright?.”

Togami looks up and takes his hand and slowly, he begins to rise to the platform. He does this with little difficultly considering how long his legs are. Amami forgets about that sometimes. Giving him a bit of support on the back, Amami pulls him up to the deck. Togami stumbles a bit, shakily regaining his footing once given support from the railing.   
  
“There you go. Not so bad, right?”    
  
“I don’t know how you could ever stand this. “   
  
Amami smiles,  “You get used to it. Trust me.”

Little does Amami know, it would take a while for Togami to get his sea legs. He had gotten so used to sailing boats and living on them that he can’t even tell the difference between flat ground and the deck of a boat on still water by feeling alone most times. But if he really did focus in, he could feel the soft rocking on the smooth current. If he really tried to focus on it, he could. 

He seems a bit pale. Does Togami fear the water? Amami thinks it could be the rocking as well. When he was first starting to sail, he got a bit nauseated at the constant rocking as well. It takes adjustment. It takes time for it to become a source of relaxation rather than a source of sickness.    
  
“You can head inside. I’ll untie the boat, and we’ll be off in just a second.”

And so it begins.

  
  



End file.
